[Feature Request] Zotero Web Library

capelo
I'm getting happier everyday with Zotero, and besides using it only to handle my citations and metadata, I would like to have a different experience as a reader.
Zotero Web is awesome to handle the metadata, but could we get what could be a different view to present the books similar to what we have in Kavita reader - a shelve with the book covers to open on the awesome Zotero dark-mode reader?

Also, would it be possible to have the option in the "pdf dark-mode reader" to ignore the images, so we keep the colors, even if the rest of the text is in dark mode?

I know that these asks would require lot of work, but it would if the team could consider it would be really awesome additions :)
  • oyvindbs
    It would be really cool to have a cover view in Zotero. I've moved from Kindle to Zotero and transferred all my ebooks. I was missing the Kindle widget showing the book I was reading and made a work around. I don't think it is too difficult to make as a community project it for someone who knows programming for ios/android but from my R-stats background the webpage was what I managed. The API makes it possible to extract the books from a collection and also to extract the covers.

    With my limited knowledge of R and markdown I've made my own private work around:
    https://oyvindsolheim.com/other/zbooks/ which links to each book in the web library. When the ios and android apps support epubs it will be easy to change it to linking to the apps.

    On my iphone I use a widget called Glimpse to show the page on my desktop, showing two books at random.

    To make the webpage I used the zotero API to download the list of books from one collection. Then I made a folder with all the covers from the books (ISBN-number.jpeg) by unzipping the epubs and checking the metadata file (OPF?) and then I made the site using the Zotero data and the images.
  • tnajdek
    The Web Library is designed to provide a familiar experience for users of Zotero on desktop and mobile devices, with a user interface that closely aligns with these platforms. Introducing a completely new UI paradigm, such as a cover-view for eBooks, falls outside the intended scope of the Web Library's design.
    Also, would it be possible to have the option in the "pdf dark-mode reader" to ignore the images, so we keep the colors, even if the rest of the text is in dark mode?
    This is a commonly requested feature but would require a significantly different technical approach than what is currently implemented. See: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/477834
    With my limited knowledge of R and markdown I've made my own private work around...
    This is a great approach—congratulations on completing your project!

  • capelo
    @oyvindbs, that's what I'm looking for. Can you give me some indications about how you did it?

    @tnajdek, don't get me wrong, my ask is not to replace Web Library. The strategy of getting a similar experience of Zotero Desktop is really the way to go. My ask is to have a different view - please think of it as an additional (different) webapp, with a different purpose. Kavita (https://wiki.kavitareader.com) has a great way to dispose the books, and I can even point to a folder with my Zotero books, but it will not grab the metadata.
    For Zotero, having all the data, it should be something very feasible to implement.
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